Society In Lithuania Research Articles

THE PRACTICE OF NORDIC WALKING IN THE CONTEXT OF TOURISM AND ACTIVE LEISURE

The purpose of this article is to determine what forms of active leisure and tourism activities are being chosen by representatives of various groups of society in Lithuania and to find out the importance of Nordic walking in the context of active tourism and leisure. The pandemic, which lasted for several years, limited the opportunities of Lithuanians to travel abroad, but encouraged the search for new forms of leisure in Lithuania. A wider offer of local excursions appeared, more and more Lithuanians became interested in Nordic walking and other forms of active leisure. The research showed that a majority of respondents take part in hiking, water sports and cycling. All these activities are extremely popular during the warmer seasons. Meanwhile, Nordic walking is just beginning to establish itself as a popular form of active leisure Keywords: tourism, leisure, Nordic walking, excursion, activity

Political Communication of Creative Society in Lithuania: Sociological Aspects

The aim of the article is to analyse the sociological aspects of political communication of creative society in Lithuania, that is to calculate (using official statistics) the approximate quantity of a creative class in nowadays society (in Lithuania and in some countries of the world: the European Union’s average of 27 countries, the USA, Canada, Russia; China still does not have such statistics). The research showed that in the nowadays society (that could be called creative society), the representatives of creative class make not less than 25–30% of all employees in that country (using official statistics, and namely, the economic activity classification ‘NACE Rev. 2’ and its analogues in other countries, in the section level, the creative class is calculated as the sum of the most suitable economic activities: J, K, L, M, P, Q, R). Moreover, the research showed that the quantity of creative class in the nowadays society was constantly increasing – by 3% on the average in every 10 years (estimating official statistics for the period of 1990–2020 where available). The article is based on the results of the doctoral dissertation prepared by the author.

Stakeholders’ perceptions of book piracy’s benefits to society in Lithuania

PurposeBook piracy represents a threat to the publishing industry, while for the society, book piracy provides some benefits. The purpose of this study is to examine views of readers, authors and publishers in Lithuania on book piracy’s benefits to society.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses phenomenography to examine readers’, authors’ and publishers’ reflections on book piracy’s potential social benefits. The authors collected research data via semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 10 participants from each group (readers, authors and publishers – a total of 30 interviews).FindingsSix qualitatively different categories of attitudes were revealed, namely, that book piracy provides easier and more convenient access to books, helps readers save money, pushes readers to read more, helps for authors to gain more popularity, provides wider access to books and provides consumers with moral satisfaction. The similarities between readers’, authors’ and publishers’ views on benefits of book piracy outweigh the differences.Practical implicationsTheoretical background indicates that stakeholders’ explicitly stated attitudes towards book piracy contribute to their book piracy intentions. This study hopes to help publishers in Lithuania confront the challenge of book piracy and develop effective strategies to attenuate a normative framework with four actionable recommendations to help professionals in the publishing industry to better address book piracy.Originality/valueBook piracy continues to perplex publishers, in part because they lack a clear understanding of the social and psychological underpinnings of book piracy. This study aims to develop such an understanding by filling gap in the literature on book piracy: the lack of work on readers’, authors’ and publishers’ perceptions of book piracy’s individual and social benefits.

Women’s Leadership in New Religions and the Question of Gender Equality in Post-Communist Lithuania

This article discusses features of women’s religious leadership, social innovations, and transmission of existing gender relations patterns within diverse new religions in post-communist society in Lithuania. The article is based on participant observation in Pagan and Hindu-origin religious groups and interviews with women leaders of these groups. The narratives of women leading Pagan and Hindu religious groups in Lithuania reflected their agency, features of their leadership, and the basis for the construction of their religious authority. Research data showed that the women interviewed took leadership of their respective religious groups after gaining professional experience in their careers. Their agency was not permeated by feminist ideas, but instead the importance of men in their life choices was emphasized throughout their narratives. The three case studies indicate that female religious leadership in these new religions follows the tendency toward a return to patriarchal values in post-communist society in Lithuania, rather than moving towards an ideal of gender equality.

Professor of matematics Aurel Edmund Voss and University of Lithuania

Professor Aurel Edmund Voss was a German mathematician, best known for his contributions to application of geometry in natural science and mechanics. The collection of books of professor A.E. Voss was bought and used by Faculty of Matematics and Nature of Univerity of Lithuania. In 1940’s the collection of books of prof. A.E. Voss was transfered to Vilnius University. The aim of the work was to investigate collections of books of libraries of Lithuania and to present books of prof. A.E Voss to scientific society of Lithuania.

The impact of Nordic adult education ideas on the development of a democratic society in Lithuania

This article analyses the role of the cooperation with and the influence of the Nordic countries on the development of a democratic society in Lithuania through adult education since the reinstatement of its independence from Soviet regime in March 1990 to the present. The authors focus on three main areas: (1) the training of Lithuanian adult educators; (2) the establishment and development of NGOs; and (3) the implications for a Lithuanian policy of adult education. Within the framework of Nordic-Baltic cooperation established among five Nordic and three Baltic countries (NB8) in 1992, Lithuanian adult educators seized the opportunity to visit Scandinavian institutions and projects. Experiencing Nordic adult education ideas has resulted in a marked shift in Lithuanian adult educators’ values, methodology and careers; and in the establishment of a series of very influential umbrella associations as well as hundreds of NGOs in Lithuania which work with adults and support functioning democratic values in society. This shift is related to the civic responsibility and active participation growing out of the bottom-up approaches of group work, cooperation, discussions and learning circles which are so inherent in the Nordic tradition of adult education. The internalisation of new democratic values was more complicated than expected for many Lithuanian politicians, adult educators and NGO leaders in terms of how political decisions were perceived and implemented. Furthermore, the influence of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation in adult education may also be traced in adult education policy implications in Lithuania. Some changes in the policies of contemporary Lithuania have not been successful and even failed to promote a democratic society.

The Tragedy of Holocaust and Possibilities for Reconciliation in the Society of Lithuania

The Tragedy of Holocaust and Possibilities for Reconciliation in the Society of Lithuania

Obstacles and Facilitators in Developing Integrated Team Based Home Care Services in Lithuania

Introduction. The development of innovative high quality care forms is a challenging issue in rapidly aging society of Lithuania. The new shape integrated homecare services for people with chronic conditions have been constructed and have been functioning over the year as the pilot projects in the 21 municipality around Lithuania. In almost all integrated care pilot municipalities except two regions (in Alytus and Sakiai, with primary health care units as integrated care providers) the initiative to develop team based integrated homecare services to persons with chronic conditions has been taken by departments of social services. The purpose of this study is to identify the key contextual elements and related strategic, organizational processes from pilot municipalities as facilitators and obstacles in developing mobile team based integrated homecare services as contrast to traditional institutionalised care. Theory/Methods. Pettigrew and Whipp's context, content and process model of strategic change was used as theoretical framework for the case studies of team based integrated homecare pilots. According this framework the data collection focused on three entities: what external and internal contexts instigated municipalities and service providers to take the challenge to develop the new shape integrated team based homecare services and how service providers perceive, construct and implement integrated team based homecare; and finally, what outcomes have been shaped with new form integrated care. Data were analysed from transcripts of 20 focus groups with administrators, social and health care providers and 12 in depth interviews with care receivers (informal caregivers and patients) in ten purposively sampled municipalities: pilots executed by municipality social provision departments in partnership with private and state agencies, directly by social services departments and by primary health care unit. The findings were compared with factors and dimensions of Normalisation Process Theory (May et al. 2007). Results and discussion. The study revealed the obstacles and facilitators related to individual and different organizational levels in constructing team based integrated homecare. The study 15th International Conference on Integrated Care, Edinburgh, UK, March 25-27, 2015 1 International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 15, 27 May – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-117127– http://www.ijic.org/ revealed individual level topics such as trust and collaboration building between integrated team care providers and informal caregivers, challenges in building new routines and habits for patient in homecare process, resistance and adaptation to presence of constant changing strangers’ at home. The study exposed the organizational issues related to interaction between team members and administration, tensions issues in status difference between social and health care providers, tasks distributions between team members, perception diversity of team and care, lack of teamwork experience and sense of shared responsibility, issues of staff commitment due to termed pilots. The inter-institutional and intra-institutional hindering tensions between social and health care providers unclosed the competition over the homecare field; new institution as threat to monocracy of health care; lack of skills and early transition from hierarchical to dialog based horizontal structures; inequality of resource distribution between integrated team members uncompensated travel costs for social care providers vs. car with fuel coverage for health care providers. The mentality of monolog culture with highly hierarchic structures in health care system hinders recognition of nursing as separate profession with certain competencies: avoidance by nurses to take decisions on nursing issues without consultation with physician even in areas of their professional competence supremacy as care of bedsores. The important facilitators were the support of municipality in service development and participatory involvement of the unit from the beginning of project planning. The professionally organized integrated homecare services facilitated transition to collaborative relationship between health care and social care providers. The requirement to follow literally description of project activities even the performance of planned activities contradicted the reality in practice hinders development of new service. As study limitation is the administrators gatekeepers’ role in accessing research participants: patients, informal caregivers, health and social care providers. In some municipalities the presence of head of the unit in the focus group suppressed openness of the staff. The study had insufficient data on patients’ experience of care as the integrated care pilots addressed severely ill patients with limited communication abilities. Conclusions. The study revealed micro, mezzo and macro levels obstacles and facilitators in constructing team based integrated homecare. The distinction of developed models of team based integrated homecare services participatory interaction between stakeholders of the care with the traits of patient centred approach and collaborative practices between existing social and health care structures. The move from the tradition of hierarchical model of service development ( i.e. from “above” perspective constructing orders of ministers with limited perception of reality and municipalities as executive committees with resistance performing commandments and shaping service delivery imitation) grounded the participatory practice in service development.

The Hidden Violence of Totalitarianism: Policing Soviet Society in Lithuania

This article deals with the historical development of the militia in the Soviet Union. The discussion concentrates on the post-Stalinist era, when terror as a method of rule was largely rejected and the regime shifted towards the use of propaganda and education as a mode of governance. On the basis of archival materials, the article describes how militia activities in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) were organized during the period 1969–1975. Particular attention is given to the attempts of the state authorities to make the militia more legitimate and acceptable to the general population, reduce the antagonism between the militia and society, decrease the amount of direct physical violence and find new, less violent and more consensual ways to police Soviet society.

Lithuanian language maintenance in the emigrant family: the case of US

One of today’s most painful problems of the society of Lithuania is massive emigration, which is often heated debated in different circles of the society. One of the aspects of the problem is concerned with the Lithuanian language: whether or not the language should be maintained. Lithuanian emigrants often complain that their children are not willing to talk with their parents in their native/heritage language. On the other hand, there are many examples when after spending long years in emigration, people are still fluent in their native tongue and/or maintain strong national identity. Thus the paper aims at exploring strategies of how Lithuanian emigrant families maintain the Lithuanian language.The paper analyses the US subset of the data collected during the research project “The Language of Emigrants”. The subset consists of three generations of Lithuanian emigrants. The investigation is based on a quantitative survey (n = 438) and qualitative in-depth semi-standardized interviews (n=15) from the USA (most of them recorded in May 2012 in Los Angeles, CA).The results of the research suggest that successful maintenance of the Lithuanian language has been due to a conscious decision by the members of the family to keep the language as a language of communication in the family and to pass it over to the younger generation. Emotional ties with the native/heritage language are also very important. The investigation has identified the prevalence of the authoritarian management model of language maintenance in those families.No less important is the social environment outside the children’s home domain. Formal education and active involvement in the Lithuanian community are considered significant factors contributing to learning/maintaining the Lithuanian language. Regular trips to Lithuania also help strengthen the sense of ethnic identity.

Critical analysis of long-term vision of Lithuanian Science and Studies: seeking for most realistic scenario of higher education development

On the basis of the scientific literature and document analysis long-term vision of Lithuanian Science and Studies “Learning Lithuania 2030” is analyzed in this article. This fist part deals with the situation of education in Europe, with particular emphasis on higher education and the search for factors affcting the Lithuanian higher education situation. Unique situation of Lithuanian higher education allows assume that in the future Lithuanian Higher Education will develop on its own way. The second part of the article discusses long-term vision of Lithuanian Science and Studies “Learning Lithuania 2030” and highlights factors affcting development of higher education. The third paragraph is devoted to discuss the manner in which these factors inflence the Lithuanian science and studies nowadays. The fourth paragraph discusses possibilities to achieve learning society in Lithuania until 2030 and highlights the assumptions that are necessary in order to achieve that quality of society. Conclusions of the article emphasize that active university initiative to educate the society could move forward changes that will drive the development of Lithuania towards a learning society, where scientific knowledge is the axes of life, economic activity, consumption, employment and development.

Pilietinės visuomenės dilemos Lietuvoje

The article offers an attempt to reconstruct the concept of civic society and, with the help of new instrumentation, to analyze the dilemmas of the appearance and development of the civic society in Lithuania.
 In the concept of the civic society, the emphasis on its non-political and self-building character predominates. The basic motive of the attempt to reconstruct the civic society, as presented in the article, accentuates the necessity of the appearance of the political component in the civic society. The political connections of the civic society have been labeled as sub-politics or non-state politics. Not only the potential of the political connections of the civic society, but also their limits have been analyzed: the civic society is able not only to take over some of the state functions that are managed inefficiently, but, by doing it in a resolute way, to stimulate the society’s fragmentation. It has also been emphasized that the concept of the civic society implies two not identical, but simultaneous actions: the civic society is not built by the state “from above”, however, it is not the result of a mere self-building process, either.
 The dilemmas of political - non-political, system - anti-system, consolidated- fragmentary, local – global characteristics are typical of the appearance and development of the civic society in Lithuania. Beside the universal content of the dilemmas in question, the unique character of their development in Lithuania is quite obvious.
 Lithuania has not yet managed to escape from the “non-synchronic circle” of the (self)-building of the state and the civic society. The statement that the civic society in Lithuania is arising anew each time after the formation of the national state would be too categorical. However, Lithuania does not have any substantial experience of the non-interrupted co-existence of the civic society and the state, its development has been discrete. The civic society in Lithuania fails to get rid of the anti-system approach with respect to their own country, although anti- system values usually form with regard to foreign states. The lack of synchronism is not favorable to any newly – developing system, and the more effort is made to consolidate the non-political character of the civic society, the less favorable it becomes.
 The motive of the building of the politicized civic society, of the realization of its political component remains unattractive in Lithuania, as it is identified with the striving of the state to control the society. In fact, one might expect the alienation of the civic society from the state, but not its total de-politicizing. Unless the civic society is politicized, i.e. unless attempts are made to solve certain common problems of the society without the state’s interference or with its minimum interference more and more frequently, the interventionist strivings of the state will never in any way yield to restriction.
 Thus, the gap between the civic society and the state in Lithuania leaves no serious chance for their interrelation, and simultaneously for their modernization. The present situation results from the contradiction of nationalism and an anti-system approach, which historically is no longer promising. The anti-system approach determines the absence of widely-spread civic movements that would aim to introduce changes in the life of the society, but not merely seek for state power, in Lithuania. The inertia of the anti-system approach caused unjustifiable strivings to de-politicize the civic society and not to collaborate with the state. The anti-system approach is a serious obstacle to the appearance of self-activating, i.e. irretrievably strong, civic society. 
 The rudiments of the civic society in Lithuania experience not so much the necessary support from the state, but rather intensive interventionism. The duty of political democracy with regard to the civic society - to open the possibility for a free individual to set their own goals independently and together with their compatriots to establish one or another type of social order - remains unfulfilled. In its turn, the civic society retains a strict anti-system approach. All that witnesses the weakness of both levels - the state and the civic - of the organization of our society. In such a situation, not only the internal consolidation potential of the Lithuanian civic society, but also its openness for global processes remains problematic. However, with Lithuania becoming integral part of the fast-progressing world, it cannot avoid the new factors that influence the development of the civic society: post-materialism and information, and that can become a weighty argument for the appearance of a “loyal division” between the civic society and the state.

The Profile of Consumer of Contemporary Lithuania

The paper analyzes the data of survey which was carried out in Novermber-December 2001. The pattern of consumer society is applied for the analysis of the data. There are two general features of consumer society: it is whealthy and it has a set of characteristic values. The data shows that society in Lithuania has several characteristic features which differ it from typical wealthy western consumer society. At the same time it has some features which are related with wealthy society. First of all, the Lithuanian society is not the typical wealthy society. And the possibilities of population to consume are low. At the same time a part of society has values which are characteristic to the middle-class society: the need of self-expression and ecological attitudes.

Acoustical Society of Lithuania—10th Anniversary

Acoustical Society of Lithuania—10th Anniversary

The face of religion and its role in the reconstruction of the society in Lithuania

(1992). The face of religion and its role in the reconstruction of the society in Lithuania. Religion Today: Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 8-12.